Finding Tonberry King in FF7 Rebirth

Don't we love a Tonberry? The menacingly cute lantern-swinging slasher makes a return to Final Fantasy VII/FF7 Rebirth. This time, he comes in a bigger size and with a beautiful crown to boot. The Tonberry King debuts in FF7 Rebirth as the world boss of the Corel region, and this is a sight you wouldn't want to miss. Because, as part of a long questline that unlocks a special accolade, you need to find and defeat him. Here is how.

Tonberry King is the world boss in FF7 Rebirth's third region, Corel, after Mindflayer and Quetzalcoatl. There will be a questline that asks you to defeat him soon after you first arrive in the region. However, it won't be until much later before you can actually find him. Follow these steps to find Tonberry King in FF7 Rebirth.

The very first step is to complete the main storyline at Costa Del Sol, which is the entire scenario of "Chapter 6: Fool's Paradise." After completing the story, a number of side quests will become available. The one pertaining to Tonberry King is "The Saga of the Seaside Inn." In this quest, you must help Johnny renovate his beach hotel, Seaside Inn. There are 12 steps to this quest, which are summarized below:

Though many, most of the tasks on the list are quite mundane. However, there is one detail that will hinder your progress right when you are about to search for Tonberry King.

In order to find Tonberry King, you need to get to the Desert of Corel. However, this is only available to you after completing "Chapter 7: Those Left Behind" and the first half of "Chapter 8: All That Glitters." This will take considerable time as there are many mandatory story quests you need to complete before you can access the desert. On the bright side, this is the part where you get to explore the Gold Saucer! So, take your time and enjoy the journey.

Now that you have reached the desert, you need to scan the remaining Mako Lifesprings as part of the Corel region's Expedition Intel missions. Make sure you have scanned the Lifesprings around Costa Del Sol area as well. After scanning all Lifesprings, Chadley will give you a "Classified Intel: Heavy Lies the Crown" and identify Tonberry King's location (see map above).

Finally, the duel of a lifetime with the king of the little green one-shot killers have arrived! For this boss fight, you need to come fully prepared. You need to equip a Steal Materia in particular, which we will explain why later. Yuffie and Barrett are the best companions to go along with Cloud in this fight. They fight from a distance, which is something you absolutely need when going against Tonberries. That's right — the king won't be alone because he has the ability to summon Tonberry minions.

Always be on a lookout for any Tonberry that comes close in order to avoid its one-shot-one-kill Knife attack. The same goes with Tonberry King himself with his Well-Hone-Knife ability. Be wary when he casts Bone-Deep Grudge as he will inflict a medium area-of-effect (AoE) blast that will stop you in time. He can also make giant kitchen utensils rain from the sky with Hopping Mad. You will be stunned if you are hit repeatedly, leaving you open for the Tonberries to stab.

In order to pressure Tonberry King, you have to dodge his knife attacks. Timing your dodge may not be so easy as he is extremely fast. If you find this difficult, just spam your dodge and weave in and out. After successfully dodging, expend all your ATBs to follow up with a multitude of powerful attacks to pressure him.

Here's why you need to have the Steal Materia. Once you have pressured Tonberry King, he will drop the crown on the ground. When this happens, you can use the Steal ability to obtain his crown. Do this before he finds his bearings and retrieves his crown. After stealing his crown, Tonberry King will become much more vulnerable to stagger. Continue to maintain your distance and use your synergy abilities to finish him off.

You can also simply defeat Tonberry King without having to steal, but this will net you a "Marred" crown instead of a "Pristine" one. And the Pristine crown is what you'll need to complete Johnny's questline.

After delivering Tonberry King's crown to Johnny and completing his quest, you will have successfully renovated Johnny's Seaside Inn. The inn then becomes accessible via fast travel. More importantly, remember all the weird gizmos and doodads you have been collecting? Such as the stuffed dolls and PLAY ARTS action figures? You now have a home to store and display all the collectibles you have amassed in the game so far at Johnny's Seaside Inn. And it is truly a thing of beauty.

Once you have collected all 88 trinkets in the game, you can open Johnny's secret chest that lies right outside the inn. What could be hidden inside?

So there you have it! Everything you need to know about finding Tonberry King and why it is important for you to defeat him.

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